This series takes a candid look at the advertising being crammed onto your television screens and into your heads. Is it really good advertising, or just wasting a commercial break? Reader suggestions are always welcome.
Nationwide Insurance has really been one of a small number of companies that have been able to pull off "smart clever" advertising consistently. Their "Life Comes At You Fast" campaign has done an excellent job of taking everyday situations and giving them just enough exaggeration to make them a humorous and memorable commercial.
It is precisely that track record that forces me to lambaste them today. I wish I had the video embedded, but you'll have to settle for doing a little bit of work (just scroll down a bit and click on the 'Remote' ad).
I appreciate the basic concept of the ad. Guy gets a call on his cell phone that he has to take, so he steps out of the room. His girlfriend, ever eager to please, has been dutifully watching the basketball game with him up until this point.
When her man leaves the room, she grabs the remote to change the channel. She tries and tries again, never noticing that instead of changing the channel, she is actually cranking up the fireplace behind her, until we leave the ad with her sudden pang of realization as the wall and painting behind her go up in a fiery blaze.
Just a small set of issues here. Am I really to believe that our beautiful young brunette is so dumb that she picked up the remote, used it to change the channel, saw that it didn't work, looked at the remote, didn't see a button labeled "channel," and still used the remote? That's ridiculous. Very very few people are that dense.
On top of that ridiculous exaggeration, I hate to break it to you, but 99% of the fireplaces around the world that have any sort of automatic controls also have safeguards in them (like limits on flame amount) that would keep you from making a fire anywhere near big enough to leave the hearth and do damage.
I will cut Nationwide a break, since they've done a very impressive job - outside of this ad - of taking everyday life and tweaking it into humor, a very good example of the type of advertising I do appreciate (for those of you who were wondering if I just hate commercials unequivocally).
This time they just took a good concept a little bit too far for the sake of humor. Sorry Nationwide, but I don't buy it.
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